A high-ranking Jordanian official claimed on Sunday that Qatari Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jaber Al Thani made a secret visit to Israel two weeks ago and held talks with Israeli officials, according to a Lebanese Arabic daily.
The assertions came in a report in Al Mustaqbel, which is owned by Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.
The official’s comments come amid a tense situation between Qatar and Jordan over the latter’s decision to prevent exiled Hamas leader Ibrahim Ghoseh from entering the kingdom on a flight from Doha.
Doha is demanding the return of a Qatar Airways plane grounded at Amman's airport since it landed in the Jordanian capital on June 14, carrying the banished Hamas leader.
The 65-year-old Hamas spokesman, a Jordanian citizen of Palestinian origin, flew into Amman unexpectedly from his exile in Qatar.
Jordan has said the Qatar Airways plane will be grounded until the Gulf state flies Ghoshe back to Doha.
According to the Jordanian official, Thani’s visit was followed by a secret visit by the former coordinator of Israeli affairs in Lebanon, Uri Lubrani, to Doha three days ago.
Lubrani, said the official, discussed with the Qatari officials ways to re-activate Israel’s representative office in Doha, reportedly opened after Qatar officially announced its closure prior to an urgent meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) that was held in November.
Qatar closed the office after Saudi Arabia and Iran announced at the time they would boycott the meeting if it remained open.
In the meantime, Yemen has abandoned its mediation in a row between Jordan and Qatar over Ghoshe because the parties are refusing to budge, a Yemeni official said Sunday.
"We proposed to Mr. Ghoshe [that he] settle provisionally in Yemen until he renounces his membership in Hamas," the official told AFP, but the Palestinian movement rejected the proposal.
"We have withdrawn from mediating because the parties concerned are sticking to their positions," he said.
Libya has also offered to mediate in the standoff, offering to send a plane to fly Ghoshe back to Qatar.
Another Hamas deportee from Jordan, Khaled Mishaal,
told Albawaba.com on Sunday that the Jordanian government’s hard line on the exile of Ghoshe had kept the issue frozen.
Mishaal, head of the movement’s politburo, said that the government’s conditions were “impractical” and “unacceptable to any human being.” - Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
